Conventional electronic games are generally well known in the art. In these electronic games, a game is loaded into a game platform, and the game progresses according to a programmed sequence of events (a.k.a. “multimedia events”). The sequence of events may be graphics, audio, text, imagines, video, audiovisual, or the like. During the game progress, the player frequently can interact with the game using a conventional input/output device, such as a keyboard, a joystick, a mouse, a game pad, or the like (a.k.a. conventional bios systems). The player's interaction with the game typically involves choices, such as, selecting the green door or the red door, or hand-eye coordination, such as moving a player using a joystick. Sometimes, the game will require the user to complete a task or solve a puzzle, but the player still interacts with the game programming using physical acts input through conventional bios devices.
Gaming companies have been attempting to increase the enjoyment of game play for a user by monitoring the physical state of the user. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,508, titled GAME OR PLAY FACILITIES CONTROLLED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL INFORMATION, issued on Jun. 30, 1998, to Sugita et al., incorporated herein by reference, describes an electronic game that monitors an excitement level of a user. The electronic game uses the monitored excitement level, which is based on physiological information related to the user, to select the next sequence in the game to maintain a consistent excitement level for the user. In other words, if the user is experiencing heightened excitement, the next sequence would be a less exciting sequence. Whereas, if the user was experiencing lessened excitement, the next sequence would be a more exciting sequence.
Similarly, U.S. pending patent application Ser. No. 09/963,187, titled BIOFEEDBACK BASED PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, filed by Mandigo on Sep. 25, 2001, published on Mar. 27, 2003 (2003/0060728), incorporated herein by reference, describes an entertainment system that uses biofeedback to determine a “mood” of the user. Based on the user's mood, the entertainment system picks an appropriate style of entertainment, such as jazz music for a peaceful mood, or the like.
Unlike the above biofeedback gaming systems, some biofeedback systems provide increased physical responses based on the player's physiological status. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,820, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENCOURAGING PHYSIOLOGICAL SELF-REGULATION THROUGH MODULATION OF AN OPERATOR'S CONTROL INPUT TO A VIDEO GAME OR TRAINING SIMULATOR, issued on Sep. 17, 2002, to Palsson et al. provides a biofeedback control system that monitors the player's physiological state to cause a conventional game controller to change the default response characteristics. For example, if the biofeedback monitor indicates the player is getting lax, the system may cause the joystick controls to become more difficult to operate.
The above gaming systems provide some incentive for a player to regulate physiological conditions of the body. For example, a player who wishes to hear jazz music, will have some incentive to become peaceful. However, none of systems are designed to teach a player how to regulate personal biometrics to establish control over the gaming environment and, hence, the player's physiologic status. So, while users may acknowledge the need to become peaceful, they would have no information or training tending to inform them how to regulate their bodies into a peaceful state. Further, no existing gaming systems use biometric information from multiple users games, such as on-line mass multiplayer games, to influence the game environment. Thus, it would be desirous to develop an electronic gaming environment designed to train users to regulate their physiological conditions either in isolation or collectively.